MEET THE 2025 FOIA FEST BOOT CAMP COHORT
The Chicago Headline Club, the nation’s largest chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity are proud to announce its 2025 FOIA Fest Boot Camp cohort.
The FOIA Fest Boot Camp is a training program for Chicago-based reporters from marginalized communities to help them navigate accountability journalism — from story-idea to publishing.
The journalists will receive specialized training sessions from seasoned reporters and mentoring from the Investigative Project on Race and Equity. The program also includes a stipend and a free ticket to FOIA Fest, the Headline Club’s annual conference to train journalists and members of the public to access public records through the Freedom of Information Act.
Senior investigative reporters Alejandra Cancino of Injustice Watch and María Inés Zamudio of Invisible Institute launched the program in 2021 hoping it would inspire newsrooms to create mentoring opportunities to support and retain journalists of color in the industry.
Funding for FOIA Fest and the Boot Camp comes from the MacArthur Foundation and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Meet the cohort
Audrey Azzo
Audrey Azzo is the program coordinator for Press Forward Chicago’s Peer Learning Community, an initiative in partnership with Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Through her research and coaching, Audrey works with multiple organizations invested in advancing the Chicago local news ecosystem. She is also a research assistant at Northwestern’s MENA Language Department. An alum of the American University of Beirut and Medill, she pursues data-driven approaches to report on unjust systemic practices and human rights abuses.
Nicole Jeanine Johnson
Nicole Jeanine Johnson is an investigative journalist and storyteller from Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. She is currently working for the Investigative Project on Race and Equity as a reporting extern through Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications where she studies as a graduate student. As a freelance journalist, Johnson has reported for outlets including the Chicago Defender, City Bureau and Harvey World Herald, specializing in uncovering how seemingly separate issues — from political corruption to childcare funding — are connected through broader patterns of disinvestment and systemic racism, and amplifying the voices of those working to create change. Johnson earned a Master of Education from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan.
Kacie Faith Kress
Kacie Faith Kress holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School, specializing in social justice and solutions journalism. She is a freelance investigative and political reporter with bylines in nonprofit newsrooms across the nation, covering everything from carceral injustice to queer culture in Appalachia. Born and raised in East Tennessee, she currently lives in Chicago.
Mariah Rush
Mariah Rush is a third-year Report for America corps member covering the South and West sides for the Chicago Sun-Times. She specializes in reporting on food access, business and healthcare equity. Mariah previously reported for the Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and the South Bend Tribune. She worked in audience engagement at the Tampa Bay Times, and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
NaBeela Washington
A Black journalist, poet, organizer and connoisseur of croissants, NaBeela Washington writes about what’s possible. She holds a master's degree in creative writing and English from Southern New Hampshire University and is the proud mama of arts publisher Lucky Jefferson. She’s working on research revealing gaps in news access and how incarceration psychologically impacts civic engagement, and she's also writing a children's book. Check out her words in Eater, The TRiiBE, Chicago Reader and others.
Meet the Mentors
Sarah Karp
Sarah Karp is a reporter at WBEZ. A former reporter for Catalyst Chicago, The Chicago Reporter and the Daily Southtown, Karp has covered education, and children and family issues for more than 20 years. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She is a native of Chicago. PHOTO Sarah Karp Headshot
Grace Hauck
Grace Hauck is an investigative reporter with Illinois Answers Project’s State Investigations Team. She most recently investigated the overuse and abuse of restraint chairs in Illinois county jails. She previously worked for USA TODAY in Chicago in various roles, including breaking news, enterprise, and criminal justice reporting.
Lakeidra Chavis
Lakeidra Chavis is a staff writer for The Marshall Project. She has written extensively on gun violence and gun enforcement in Chicago, as well as Black suicides, gang structures and the opioid crisis. Her work currently focuses on juvenile justice. She previously reported at ProPublica Illinois and for NPR stations in Chicago and Alaska. Lakeidra was a 2021 Livingston Award finalist. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Kristen Schorsch
Kristen Schorsch is a reporter on WBEZ Chicago’s government and politics team, where she specializes in public health and Cook County government. She's part of a national collaboration led by NPR and KFF Health News.
A journalist for more than 20 years, she’s covered health care, government, crime, courts, higher education and news of the weird (think coffin parties) for Crain’s Chicago Business, the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Southtown and the Iowa City Press-Citizen.
Kristen has won more than a dozen local and national awards for her work. Her stories have sparked policy changes and spurred investigations. One of her investigations was featured in two books about inequality in Chicago. She was a 2021 national fellow with the Association of Health Care Journalists.
Kristen is a former longtime board member of the Chicago Headline Club and co-founded the organization’s annual FOIA Fest conference about public records and transparency. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois.